When asked the question, “have we made progress in health,” my mind goes directly to obesity. Despite the number of diets that are out on the market and the media’s attempt to portray a slim, almost anorexic looking America, the United States is headed down a very unhealthy path. Over the past three decades, obesity rates have begun to climb the charts at an alarming rate. Although I cannot speak of the individual progresses diets have made, I can account for the damage fast food has done on the weight of America by addressing three topics: 1. The link between fast food intake and health hazards 2. How fast food alters the brain 3. How early-life consumption effects the later years Although this research does not prove if the fast food industry is to blame, it does give evidence that if the United States continues to consume such fatty foods as much as it does, the entire nation will be obese not long from now. The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (2007) show that since 1985, when only eight states had a ten to fourteen percent obesity rate, percentages have grown to a point where zero states have a percentile that low. Aside from that, two states, Mississippi and West Virginia are more than thirty percent obese. As of today, over 130 million Americans, two-thirds of our adult population, are over-weight. That is, more than sixty percent of American adults and thirteen percent of children and adolescents are classified as overweight or obese. For adults, that

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